An afternoon in Salzburg

No skiing for me today. I rather discover new places. So I decided to go catch a train to Salzburg. But I was a little late so I had 40 minutes to enjoy the morning sun and a coffee with cake in town :-)

There was a small market in the centre of Zell am See.

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The views from the train were often beautiful.

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I made it to Salzburg fine and walked to the old city. I came across a nice little park.



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I sat down at this fountain a bit. Just like I used to do at the fountain on Victoria square in Adelaide.

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My guide for the day.

Salzburg is known because Mozart was born there. But in this house another famous person was born...

... Doppler.

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I walked over a bridge to get to the other side of the old town.

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View towards the city from the bridge. Up at the top is the famous castle but it was so busy I didn't wanna go in.

The street where little Mozart walked.

And there it is, Mozarts birth-house. It is... yellow. And there are hordes of tourists swarming around...

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Cathedral.

People playing chess like at the Max Euweplein in Amsterdam.

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This house looked old but the painting was well maintained.

Plenty of beefaroni in this town.

And then it was time to go home again.

ChipSki day 2

Looking out of the train window around 7AM after 4 hours of sleep.

Austrian trains are very similar to German trains.

As we drove closer to our destination we passed a lot of little Apls-villages. Very picturesque.

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It was funny to see the sharp line between clear and snowy ground.

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We had to wait in Worgl for one hour to swap locomotives.

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Not our locomotive but still... hehe.

The guys I share a train compartment with. My colleague Sylvester and his mate KlaasJan.

And also my colleague Norbert.

Austrian cottage.

Another view.

Another view.

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Final destination: Zell am See!

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One hour after arrival we were all geared up for some skiing, including yours truly.

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We walked from the hotel to the ski-lift. It was not cool, I hate ski-boots. However, the view from the lift was stunning. The ferris wheel at Dam-square at home has nothing on this lift!

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I was in a class for two hours. I only fell once about 15 minutes before the end. I had to take off my skis and I called it a day. I really liked the class but the walking in those boots takes away a lot of the fun. I don't think I'll be doing more skiing.

Apres ski. Not my thing to be honest.

On my way down to dinner I ran in to Klaasjan and Sylvester who went for a swim.

ChipSki day 1.

This magical wrist band will get me free food and drinks the next couple of days in Zell am See, Austria.

Blizzard pulled a few April's fools jokes today. The armory was showing every character as a walrus...

In the meantime George was showing something to colleagues. Personally I find it looks a bit dodgy but that could be me...

Another Blizzard April's fool joke: The EPEEN.

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At work, copius amounts of pizza and other food were being delivered between 16:30 and 17:30. Around 18:00 the busses left to take us to Central Station.

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It was all very... yellow.

Yellow was just everywhere.

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We waited for our Alps=express train that would take us to Zell am See, Austria.

There it is!

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10 wagons we occupied. This was the bar wagon.

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It stayed busy theree until closing time at 1AM. People went to sleep pretty right after.

Except for our cabin where I was teaching my cabin-mates the fine art of poker *grin* (I won 3 tournaments in a row that night).

My colleague Sylvester has ways of getting money to play more poker.